This is the list of my favourite progressive metal/rock albums of the decade. I decided to do this list because a new decade is starting, so it's a good time to look back. Beware, this is not a "best progressive metal albums of the decade" list, it's my favourites, not necessarily the ones that were the best for everyone else or me.

1.Riverside - Out Of Myself

2.Porcupine Tree - In Absentia

3.Riverside - Second Life Syndrome

4.Porcupine Tree - Deadwing

5.Opeth - Blackwater Park

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A list of my favourite Progressive albums on Metal Storm, ranked roughly in order of preference.

1.Ayreon - The Human Equation

2.Dol Ammad - Ocean Dynamics

3.Riverside - Anno Domini High Definition

4.Porcupine Tree - Signify

5.Opeth - Still Life

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I wanted to create my personal Top List for a long time and to be honest, I always considered it as some kind of cool Prog Metal, Avantgarde Metal mix. As you can see, it has become a bit more complicated. So finally, there are Unexpect and Pain Of Salvation next to Bands like Kamelot and Savatage. Also, some Non-Metal Bands got involved like Jeff Buckley and Oingo Boingo. But could you imagine how PoS would sound without Jeffs influence? Or what would have become of Mr. Bungle if it weren't for Danny Elfman and Oingo Boingo?!

1.Pain Of Salvation - The Perfect Element, Part I

2.Kalisia - Cybion

3.Savatage - Streets: A Rock Opera

4.Dog Fashion Disco - Adultery

5.Arcturus - The Sham Mirrors

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I've been listening to Metal since 2005 and it has become my biggest passion in life.

Rarely a day goes by where I don't listen to it in one form or another. The bands I listened to in my teens inspired me to pick up the guitar (and later drums) and start making music of my own.

So here are the albums that have stood out and made the largest impact on me. To be as transparent as possible, I've labelled albums as 'nostalgia bias' where my memories of the album give it an advantage over others.

(Score is an average of each album's song ratings, full list located here. There are a ton of albums that I've rated 9/10 in the 'TBR' tab that may never make it to this list, be sure to check those out.)

If you discovered any new albums or like the same sort of metal, be sure to give this list a thumbs-up and leave a comment so more people can find these amazing bands!

My other lists:
Top 25 EPs (ordered & rated)
Top 200 Overlooked Albums (with genres)
Top 200 Overrated Albums (trigger warning)
So I Heard You Like Wintersun... (Time II find new bands)

Genre-Specific:
Top 50 Black Metal Albums
Top 50 Melodic Death Metal Albums
Top 45 Thrash Metal Albums
Top 40 Power Metal Albums
Top 30 Doom Metal Albums
Top 30 Heavy Metal Albums

1.Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral

2.Opeth - Blackwater Park

3.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

4.Edge Of Sanity - Crimson

5.Opeth - Still Life

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1.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

2.Amon Amarth - Once Sent From The Golden Hall

3.Amorphis - Queen Of Time

4.Angizia - Das Schachbrett Des Trommelbuben Zacharias

5.Arcturus - The Sham Mirrors

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So here we are again . After many years of dedication and love to this music that we call progressive metal, here are some of the best albums that ever existed and made the earth a better place . Give to these albums the attention and the respect they deserve and you will be fully awarded. I think i will try and limit this list to 3 cd's maximum per band to make this thing more challenging .

1.Dan Swanö - Moontower

2.Cynic - Traced In Air

3.Cynic - Focus

4.Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odini

5.Enslaved - Ruun

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These are 10 albums that really blew me away and either broke down all of my notions of what I though a metal album could sound like, or really opened my eyes to new sub-genres. You'll notice most albums are from after 2006, that's because it wasn't really until 2007 or so that I started listening to metal.

1.Between The Buried And Me - Colors

2.The Ocean - Precambrian

3.Warning - Watching From A Distance

4.Mirrorthrone - Gangrene

5.Equilibrium - Sagas

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Back when I joined the site in 2011, I did a customary top 100 album list. Every year since then, when I've looked back at it it's become increasingly unrecognisable from my own tastes. Seeing bands I once listened to daily vanish from my playlists, new bands emerge as favourites, and bands even come and go in my reckonings during that time period (Iced Earth, Alcest, even Pain Of Salvation and more certainly peaked in my listening habits around 2011-12 to slowly vanish into obscurity). Now that it's just gone 5 years since I did that list, I thought I might do an updated list just to see how much my tastes have shifted. Whilst compiling the list, I pretty much worked on gut instinct, which was weird as I found myself almost disregarding albums I know I like whilst promoting albums I'm honestly undecided on - it almost seemed to veer away from album quality at times to embracing a subconscious effect the albums have had. Anyway, here it is, plus some honorable mentions that I was surprised missed out.

1.Dream Theater - Images And Words

2.Sylosis - Monolith

3.Sylosis - Edge Of The Earth

4.Agalloch - The Mantle

5.Protest The Hero - Kezia

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Progressive metal is one of my most favorite musical genres. The most interesting thing about this genre is the musical flexibility and the fact that progressive metal can come into different forms and this makes progressive metal one of the most divers genres of metal. For me, progressive metal is not just about stupid technicality and soulless show off. For this reason, my definition of progressive metal might be a little different from others. Progressive rock and metal were meant to put aside musical boundaries but nowadays it seems that being complex, technical, "intelligent", ambitious and pretentious is an inherent quality of prog metal genres. Screw this bullshits. Here are my most favorite prog metal albums. They might sometime be technical and complex but they all have their own soul in my opinion.

1.Tool - Lateralus

2.Opeth - Still Life

3.Nevermore - This Godless Endeavor

4.Green Carnation - Light Of Day, Day Of Darkness

5.Mayhem - Ordo Ad Chao

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These are my 20 favorite albums ever. There is a lot of a prog here, which is my favorite genre.

My taste isn't exactly defined yet, but that's because I'm still young.

1.Dream Theater - Images And Words

2.Porcupine Tree - In Absentia

3.Tool - Lateralus

4.Riverside - Second Life Syndrome

5.Opeth - Blackwater Park

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Best 20 albums of 00's without great Rock albums of this gods:
Camel , R.E.M , The Cure , Radiohead , Archive , Muse and ...

1.Anathema - A Natural Disaster

2.Antimatter - Lights Out

3.Evergrey - The Inner Circle

4.Empyrium - Weiland

5.Katatonia - The Great Cold Distance

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Updated 14.4.2024

My rather personal and improvised take on the subject matter. The list is pretty wage, I'll be updating it a lot and the order might vary a little depending on some things, but they're all great and awesome records no matter what. If there are some great records missing, that doesn't necessarily mean I consider them bad, maybe I just forgot about them or just haven't listened to them enough to consider them personal favourites.

Limited to metal and rock albums found on Metal Storm. Most of them (at least 90%) are anyway, so doesn't matter. The absent ones are mostly more pop and synth oriented stuff and some really obscure jazz and fusion albums.

1.Marillion - Marbles

2.Anathema - Weather Systems

3.Iron Maiden - Somewhere In Time

4.Moonsorrow - Voimasta Ja Kunniasta

5.Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja

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Progressive Metal/Rock is my main music, but you can't ignore the beauty in other genres.

1.Orphaned Land - The Never Ending Way Of ORwarriOR

2.Opeth - Damnation

3.Porcupine Tree - The Incident

4.Porcupine Tree - In Absentia

5.Tool - 10,000 Days

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On the picture - John Cobbett - Hammers Of Misfortune, Vhöl, Ludicra, The Lord Weird Slough Feg

1.Avenged Sevenfold - City Of Evil

2.Opeth - Blackwater Park

3.Hammers Of Misfortune - The August Engine

4.Mastodon - Remission

5.Opeth - Ghost Reveries

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No Real Order, just Great Albums!

1.Dio - Holy Diver

2.Metallica - Kill 'Em All

3.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

4.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

5.Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

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